PepsiCo to buy energy drink maker, Rockstar for $3.85B
PepsiCo to buy energy drink maker, Rockstar for $3.85B

PepsiCo to buy the energy drink maker Rockstar Energy Beverages for $3.85 billion.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in their pursuit of consumers that have a much wider variety of drinks to choose has moved aggresively to expand their business. Both must compete with smaller seltzer, soda, sparkling juice and energy drink makers that each market to a subset of consumers.

Coca-Cola, branched out from its Classic Coke to keep customers who have given up, or cut back drastically on sugary drinks. The company said in its most recent quarter that Coca-Cola Zero Sugar had double digit sales gains last year. With the acquisition of Costa Coffee in 2018, the sale of tea and Coffee grew 4% in the final three months of 2019.

The acquisition announced on Wednesday is a huge milestone for PepsiCo as it expands its portfolio of energy drinks. Mountain Dew's Kickstart, GameFuel and AMP are some other drinks in the same category.

Rockstar was founded in 2001 by entrepreneur Russel Weiner. Today it makes 30 variations of drinks that is sold in more than 30 countries. Based out of Las Vegas, PepsiCo and Rockstar have had a distribution agreement in North America since 2009.

The company aims to close the deal in the first half of the year.


 

 
Stay on top – Get the daily news from Indian Retailer in your inbox
Also Worth Reading